I don't care
by shootingstar742
Summary: When the Nebuchadnezzar returns to Zion after most of the crew's deaths, an old friend of Mouse's is in denial.  btw I started writing before i saw the last 2 movies so this Persephone is completely unrelated to the other Persephone
1. Chapter 1

"Persephone?" Tank said as he walked into a young woman's room at Zion.

"Sup?" the 20-year-old said to Tank not lifting her head from the scraps she was sorting through.

"Well were back." Tank said weakly. It had been soon after returning to Zion from the real world, after getting Neo.

"How was it?" Persephone asked.

"Well not the best-"

"Did Morpheus find 'the one'?"

"Yeah but-"

"Why aren't you celebrating?"

"I had to talk to you." She was still looking at the garbage that was laid on her bed. "Well it was a dangerous mission and not everyone turned out okay. Umm a few people-"

"Let me guess, your here to tell me that Mouse died." She said lifting up her head.

"I'm sorry." Persephone moved one pile of stuff to the foot of the bed and looked up again.

"Who else?" she said without tears in her eyes as if nothing had happened.

"Switch. Apoc. Cypher." Each word hurting him more than the last. "Dozer." At this she jumped toward him and gave him as big a hug as her small arms could manage.

"Go be with your family not with me." Persephone whispered into his chest.

"Are you okay?" he asked back, "I know you two had something."

"I'm fine, we weren't anything. But you, your brother died, don't try and comfort me. Go." She gently pushed him out of the room and closed the door. Then she spun around and continued working on sorting out her stuff.


	2. Chapter 2

Persephone was a blond haired green eyed girl who was born outside the matrix. Her parents were born inside the matrix and both died there as well. She and Mouse met the first time he came to Zion after her parents were already dead. It was 4 years ago and she was appointed to show him around. She agreed and at his first meal there he sat next to her.

The bell rang and Persephone left her room; they were calling an assembly. _Probably to announce the deaths and Neo, _she thought.

After the assembly nearly everyone had mixed emotions. They were happy for finding Neo but depressed about the deaths. About a dozen people came up to Persephone trying to comfort her.

"Oh sweetie are you okay?" "Do you need to talk?" "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine." Persephone kept saying. 2 people followed her back into her room; Sting, and Azula. Sting and Azula were 2 girls who were Persephone's best friends. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Azula asked.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be?"

"'Cause you 'nd Mouse had a," Sting paused thinking of the proper word, "thing."

"No we didn't." Persephone said denying what Sting was saying.

"Come on seph, everyone with eyes can see you had something going on."

"Look guys, do your research before you start acting like you know everything okay."

"Iz m'kay seph, we know you're sad-"

"Of course I'm sad! 5 people just died! But what do you want me to do? Start weeping about how much I love him and how perfect Mouse was? He wasn't! We weren't in love, we weren't lovers, we were friends!" Persephone yelled interrupting Sting. "Yeah I'm sad but what do you want from me? A teary cliché about how much I'll miss his smile or some shit like that?"

"No. Your right. We're sorry." Azula apologized.

As the two girls turned to leave Persephone yelled "And we didn't have a 'thing'!"


	3. Chapter 3

Persephone left her room for her shift in the food department. As she entered the elevator Mars and Jump ran in before the door closed. They were two of Mouse's friends. They went down in silence but when she got out at her stop they followed her out.

"You guys don't have a shift down here." She told them.

"We know." Jump said.

"So what are you doing?" she asked again.

"We want to talk."

"About?" she asked Jump.

"Azula and Sting came up to us and we think we should talk about-"

"Stop right there Mars there is nothing to talk about when it comes to Mouse. You want to talk about dead people go to Tank's family. Have you seen Zee and their poor kids?"

"Yeah their all crying their eyes out."

"Well sorry that I am not an emotional sissy." Persephone snapped.

"Your friends feel that you're suppressing some really bad emotions." Persephone chuckled and started moving some cans of food off a shelf to another shelf across from the original.

"Yeah sure," She stopped working, "just out of curiosity what emotions am I suppressing exactly?"

"Umm well-" Mars started, "you're depressed and sad."

"I know that. Of course I'm sad. You think I like people dying?"

"No of course not, it's just we've all cried and we're worried about what you might be holding back." Persephone rolled her eyes. "We know you to had a special connection-"

"Why does everyone think that? No we didn't! I don't know what we came off as but I promise you we were not what everyone thinks!"Persephone was screaming and several people around turned to look at her. "Leave me alone." She spat and turned to finish her tedious task.


	4. Chapter 4

Persephone sat down to attempt to enjoy a meal but was attacked by Tank. He looked awful and he had a big wound from where Cypher had shocked him. She could tell he had made a struggle just to get there.

"Hey Persephone." Tank groaned.

"Hi." She smiled at him.

"How are you taking the deaths?" he asked.

"I'm fine, how are you?"

"I'll get over it. Look Seph, we've know each other for a long time and," Tank use to babysit Persephone when they were younger, "I think you should just talk to if not me, someone, about you and Mouse."

Persephone rolled her eyes. "I really don't know why people think we were boyfriend and girlfriend because we weren't."

"I didn't say that."

"But you thought it."

"It's just you two always seemed more." Tank started.

"Well we weren't, we were friends."

"Yeah and friends cry when other friends die."

Persephone licked her lips. "How do you know I haven't cried?"

"Have you?"

"No. but that's beside the point." Tank looked at her, "Tank what do you want from me? I can't make myself cry and if I could what would be the point, it wouldn't be genuine."

"But that's exactly my point exactly!" (I know Mouse said those exact words in the tastee wheat scene) "Why don't you cry genuine tears? Why don't you feel comfortable talking about this?"

"I don't know and honestly I don't think it matters. I've lost people I care about more than Mouse, like I don't know my parents so who cares that I'm not getting all worked up over this?" before letting Tank give a rebuttal she got up and ran away without even touching her food.


	5. Chapter 5

Persephone was in her room sleeping. She was having a nightmare. Just as she woke-up sweating and panting Sting and Mars came into her room. Sting was holding something behind her back.

"Yes?" she asked.

"We didn't know you were in here." Mars said.

"Why wouldn't I be in my own room?"

"I don't know. Sorry."

"Don't apologize. What did you need?"

"Ve vanted zoo leave zomting for you." Sting said taking out the thing behind her back and handing it to Persephone.

"Why are you giving me Mouse's hat?"

"We thought maybe you would want it, help give you closure." Mars suggested.

"Oh my god! I don't need closure. And how would some ratty old hat help me?"

"Maybe it'll make you remember a story or memory that will help you."

"I don't need help! I need to be left alone!"

"You're hurting and you have people banging down your door trying to help but you're locking yourself in! Just talk to us."

"You want to talk? Fine. Why couldn't he just run away like a smart person? Maybe even if he did he would have been ambushed and still died. Maybe he could have met up with the others, and escaped but, Cypher still would have killed him. Maybe Cypher wouldn't have had the time to kill him and he lived. Then what? 4 other people still would be dead. Maybe Cypher still would kill him but then maybe Switch or Apoc would be alive. Or maybe if he was there someone wouldn't have kicked dust, Cypher wouldn't have sneezed and Morpheus wouldn't have sacrificed himself. Then Neo and Trinity wouldn't have killed a dozen men just to save one. Maybe, I don't know. Or maybe nothing would have changed!"

"Seph-" Sting started.

"Keep his hat, I don't want it." Persephone said as she left her room.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been about 3 weeks since the whole hat incident and Persephone had grown to look pale and sick, but her friends have stopped trying to get her to open up. She assumed that saying some of the possibilities of Mouse had been enough. Her appetite had slowly diminished into near nothing but not wanting to arouse suspicion she would force down food in public but usually she couldn't keep it down for too long and she would find herself puking almost every night.

In two days it would be the 1 month anniversary of the tragedy. Her friends have nearly forgotten about the whole accident but Tank had continued to get worse. She had visited him a few times but his spirit had not been burned out. The past month had been a blur and before she knew it her friends had knocked on her door asking her to visit the little memorial they had set up for the 4 lost souls.

"Iz it okay if I say a few words?" Sting asked after placing an origami rose near his area. It was more as if she was asking Persphone directly but she said nothing so she began speaking. "'E was a very good friend and ve vill miss for a very long time, and personally I vill never forget you." She stopped and looked around silently asking anybody else if they wanted to say something. Nobody stepped up so they all sat there together looking at a picture of him, his favorite hat, and the rose made by Sting. Anger and regret filled Persephone and she heard herself start to talk but she didn't know what she was saying.

"He was always so busy with the Woman in Red to notice someone really did love him! Someone real!" the 4 other people started staring at her speechless and she wanted to stop talking but she couldn't help it. "Me!" Persephone ended in a whimper. Her palms were on her eyes, placed there to keep her head up not wanting to look at the other people around her they had been right the whole time and there ignore it until it came out tactic had worked. Standing there with the memory of him had been too much.

"Do you even think I crossed his mind at all when he was being shot to death? Of course not! Meanwhile he is all I've been thinking about for weeks. I don't matter to him, not as much as she does." Persephone scowled pointing to no one.

"Who's she?" Jump asked.

"The love of his life." She said and walked out.


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you mean 'love of his life'?" Azula called after Persephone following her out.

She was shaking her head then lifted it to show a dry face but puffy, baggy eyes. Her lack of sleep suddenly became visible. "I know why I haven't cried, it's because I don't feel sorry for him dying. It's because I know he didn't love me and I know his last thoughts were of Ali."

"Who's Ali?"

"Mouse was 17 when he left the Matrix. He was engaged. He has always regretted not telling the love of his life goodbye. The Woman in Red, wasn't just some lady Mouse wanted to screw, she was based on Ali." She pause taking a deep breath and continuing. 'I'll love her till the day I die'. He's died. Does he still love her, because I still love him and highly doubt she still loves him!" her voice had cracked and had become tight and squeaky.

"All I ever wanted was to know him. To see his smile and hear his laugh and his thoughts." She trailed off, reminiscing for an instant on the man whom she loved. "And I did." She said returning to reality. "I never needed for him to love me back. I never demanded his heart, I never insisted for him to have feelings for me. It wouldn't be worth losing him. If I insisted that we became something he would either let me go or go out with me and then let me go. I would never forgive myself if I let some fling take away the single most important person in my life."

It was obviously hard for Persephone and she had a blank expression on her face. "That one time we feel asleep talking, it was their anniversary. He spent hours just talking about how much he loved her and how great she was-he never stopped loving her and even thought I would have preferred talking about something else I was just happy he came to me. For all the hours he told me about Ali, I didn't care it was somebody else."

She stopped minute to breath but no one said anything. "If I could I would have never had him unplugged from the Matrix. I love him so much I would easily give up knowing him so he could be happy with the one he loves. He's dead. Mouse is not coming back. I can never tell him I love him. But it's okay. The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone else. But it's easy to be so happy for them because if you don't you don't really love them. When I first came to accept that Mouse would never love me, it was the easiest thing I have ever done. He never loved me!" she yelled as a cleansing statement, "But I love him so much I don't even care." She smiled and started to cry.


End file.
